Top Tweets for #askrandy
#AskRandy Did BTO write any ballads?
By request, here's "Sledgehammer" from the 1974 album, Not Fragile. Fred Turner & I played it live at The Roseland Ballroom in NYC, 2012. The show was released as a 2 dvd set by Eagle Rock Entertainment. Cheers!
#rocknroll #live #music
Where did I grow up in Winnipeg?
Let's take a trip down memory lane!
#AskRandy #childhood #musician #memories #foryou
#AskRandy Duane Nickull asks: What is the sound on BTO's "Lowland Fling"?
Hi Duane, My black ’69 Les Paul into a Super Fuzz pedal and a Sunn Amp with a Model T amp head into a bottom with four 10” speakers. My was a barn dance vibe with heavy Zeppelin style riffs. Cheers!
#AskRandy Which #guitar picks do you use?
Heavy-duty, triangular picks custom ordered from Manny’s in NYC. I’ve used them for 50+ years!
Here’s one from Fillmore East, BTO 1974. If you were there, drop it in the comments. Cheers!
Band Photo: Paul Strato
#rocknroll #music
#AskRandy Frank Iwaniw
asks: Randy, what kind of guitar is this? Pickups & headstock are unfamiliar! Thank you, sir!
Hi Frank, This is a Frankenstein guitar story!
What I call "The Legend" was a black 1959 Fender Stratocaster, which I stripped the paint. When I put the pickguard back on, my screw driver slipped and poked through the wire windings on the bridge pickup and the volume dropped like a lead balloon. I had a really wild sounding Telecaster pickup so I thought I'd put that on the guitar where the bridge pickup was. I lost the screws and springs so all I could do was hold the Tele pickup where I thought it should be and caulked around it thereby gluing it to the pickguard. Little did I know how great this would sound- the pickup couldn't vibrate when turned it up to 11! So I left the middle Strat pickup in and put a Rickenbacker pickup at the neck position.
This guitar had also been converted to a 9 string when I bought it. The previous owner drilled 3 more holes in the headstock and added 3 more tuners. He doubled octaves on the A, D, G, strings which gave the guitar a fabulous unique sound but when I removed the 3 extra tuners, I split the headstock so the large scroll part of the Strat head stock fell off. The plastic nut also shattered!
I cut one of my mother's knitting needles for the new nut. I used a file and made notches for the strings to rest on. This gave the guitar some added sustain as aluminum is a great conductor of resonance and sound. When my 3 way switch broke, I replaced it with 3 off/on switches which allowed for a unique way of combining diff pickups and sounds you couldn't get out of a normal Strat.
In Brave Belt, Chad Allan played a Titano accordian and when the Titano logo fell off the squeeze box, I hammered it into the top of the Strat as a cool badge. It was a flying Eagle with a T clutched in it's claws. Later this was the start of the BTO logo. We lost the eagle but put the B and O around the T.
Unfortunately, the guitar was stolen from my garage in the 80's. #rocknroll #guitar #musichistory #foryoupage @Fender
#AskRandy Hi Randy, I heard that the BTO album (and track) "Not Fragile" were inspired by the "Fragile" album by YES. Is there any truth to that story?
It's true! YES had a globe breaking up on the cover of their album. Fred Turner said, "Let's show that we're the opposite."
YES are phenomenal musicians, incredibly skilled. BTO was and is bare-bones rock; really heavy stuff. YES used very intricate vocals and harmonies. We were like four guys in the garage playing banging, crashing guitars and just rocking out. So we called our album Not Fragile, and put a box of gears on the cover.
Fred wrote the song and then we wrote ‘Roll on Down the Highway’ and ‘You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet' which became a No. 1 single. So that was a peak BTO moment! Here we are at Cobo Hall, Detroit (1974).
#rocknroll #music #NotFragile #70s
#AskRandy Otto Ofner asks: I was listening to the Pirate Radio Broadcast yesterday and was surprised to hear you double-billed with Robin Trower. Can you tell us about that?
Hi Otto, back in the early 70's, we were very fortunate to play and tour with some amazing opening acts. Rory Gallagher, Robin Trower, ZZ Top & Frampton, to name just a few. We were all starting out. If one of us had a hit on the radio we headlined or opened for one another.
We toured with Robin for quite a while. We all loved Fender Strats. Robin was the unsung, quiet Jimi Hendrix with the same univibe and tone. Rory played more like Stevie Ray Vaughan. The music they chose was bluesy and just fantastic. Robin Trower's bass player James Dewar was the lead singer. "Bridge of Sighs" is one of my favourite albums. After touring, James retired and became a studio musician. Robin is still going strong. He's one of my very favourite guitar players. He plays slow and his notes are sustained longer. People are impressed by a fast lick but to play like him is a rare talent. He was a huge inspiration for how I played on my Heavy Blues album. Cheers!
#rocknroll #music #70s #guitarist
#AskRandy bikertrsh asks: Was it difficult to gain traction as Canadians? There were so many greats nobody realized were ours; Hank Snow, Joni Mitchell, Paul Anka, Steppenwolf…
Hi, yes! Great question!
In the U.S. they cared about music but not nationality. They found out later we were Canadian. So nationality wasn't a connection, you're correct. But in NYC for example the Rascals, our contemporaries, were known. Canada had no real established industry to promote us so it was pure grit, tenacity and luck. So many musicians had great music and couldn’t get it heard. We met them everywhere. They got local play. But stations only played what Billboard played.
In 1971, the CRTC broadcasting commission created CanCon which mandated playing Canadian content so artists had a fighting chance against US radio. So, for example, a station in every city played your song for a week. If it caught on, it could spread across the border by call-in requests. Pioneer Rosalie Trembley broke most CDN music at CKLW 800 AM or “The Big 8” as we called it; a legendary 50,000-watt radio station based in Windsor, Ontario, that dominated the Detroit/Windsor market and much of North America from the late 1960s to mid-1970s. Its high-power, directional signal, along with a "Boss Radio" format, made it one of the most-listened-to Top 40 stations.
Here’s a clip from Canadian Music Television on YouTube about what it meant to The Guess Who when we broke. A Two part documentary is available on their page and is worth the Watch! #music #history #rocknroll #foryoupage
@RandysVinylTap Who's signature version of 'Woman Tone' came first? @EricClapton @RandysVinylTap
#AskRandy I love both!
https://t.co/frwfXPsNg3
Continuing our gear chat, here I am with a Herzog unit. This was a two 12AX7 tube preamp invented by myself and Gar Gillies who built Garnet Amps in Winnipeg. This preamp with my ‘59 Les Paul into a Garnet Amp was the sound of American Woman. The result was called the “woman tone”.
We made the Herzog around 1962 before there were any foot pedals.
If you’re curious about its sound, take a listen to American Woman or No Time by The Guess Who or Gimme Your Money Please, Stayed Awake All Night and Let It Ride by BTO.
Rock on, everyone!
#GarnetAmplifiers #Winnipeg #GuessWho #BTO #guitarist
#AskRandy You asked, we answered! The Garnet Herzog amp, how it created the legendary sound of The Guess Who songs "No Time" & "American Woman". My daughter Lorelei & son Briggs are on board for this post. Cheers! #rocknroll #gear #amps #guitarist @theguesswho
#AskRandy Lyndal Skaggs asks: I think I saw you in OKC for the Van Halen tour. Leslie West played Mississippi Queen on stage with you, right?
Hi Lyndal, Yes! Here's the story. And Leslie did get clean eventually. Great guy, an enormous talent. #guitarist #rocknroll #LeslieWest #VanHalen
#AskRandy: The Polar Reefers ask: Any fun stories about how you guys acquired your Rickenbacker Guitars?
When I saw Hard Day’s night, I watched it on a loop all day since you didn’t have to leave theatres between showings. Phil Brown, the chief of police finally pulled me out at night and sent me home! I originally wanted one to look like George Harrison’s with a big cutaway, but in blonde. I also liked the mahogany colour from Lowe’s music in Winnipeg where I took violin lessons as a kid. I told the man I wanted to order a 6 string. I had to wait 6 months and finally it arrived. I went in and it was totally different than George’s model. The point on the top and bottom were not there; the point was rounded off and they had changed the shape. It had a good clean sound though. I played until the neck broke because an amp fell on it, and once repaired, I sold it to Duncan Wilson of The Mongrels who I produced. It has one of the best necks of any guitar.
In the late 70’s, I went to the factory in Santa Ana and picked out a 12 string. It’s white with plastic binding. It has stayed very white but the binding has yellowed and it sounds great on rhythm especially songs by The Byrds and The Beatles. Mine have DeArmond pickups that are wired to be jangly and mid range like CCR. It’s a less thick, bluesy sound. Now they use their own.
Photo: 1966, My Rickenbacker guitar. Playing a fashion show at the mall with The Guess Who. Pretty sure it was the first one in Canada. #rocknroll #throwback #rickenbacker #guitar
#AskRandy Jeff Turner asks: Randy, Please tell us the story of the song "Tramp". I've been listening to BTO & The Guess Who since the late 70s.
Hi Jeff, when I was in The Guess Who, I wrote a song called "It's my Pride", around 1966. Burton's vocals were great and we loved the song, which went nowhere. You never know which songs will take off and which won't!
So later on with Bachman-Turner Overdrive, My brother Timmy had heard rumours about professional tramps who begged all day and went for steak dinners at night. I decided to use the lick again but reinvent it into another song (written with my brother Robbie). It was on BTO II in 1973. If you listen to both songs, you'll get it. Here's a clip for those who've never heard it. You can stream the full song online or listen on youtube. Cheers! #music #songwriting #BTO #70s #Tramp
#AskRandy John Kube asks: how did you come to cover "Shakin' All Over", the 1960 hit by Johnny Kidd and the Pirates? And Gregg Holland asks: When did you formalize your band name?
When we recorded with Scepter Records in 1965, the song took off and we were put on the map as a Canadian band, rather than a group of mysterious musicians rumoured to be from the UK. The label officially named us The Guess Who, dropping the '?'. Here's the story!
#cheers #musichistory @theguesswho #rocknroll #scepterrecords
#AskRandy One of the most common questions I get asked as a #guitarist is "What should be my first #guitar?" The answer is what feels right. Go into a music store and try as many as you can. It's not 'one size fits all'. What matters is that it feels comfortable against your body and that you begin by trying to learn your favourite songs.
https://t.co/Rmryt1Q8yJ
#AskRandy Jay Robson asks: Can you tell us anything about Lenny Breau? When I was a teenager ( I’m 55 now) my friend who loved guitar used to play me Lenny Breau and tell me what an amazing guitarist he was. Sadly I don’t know much about his music but I remember he sounded great!
Hi Jay, I met Lenny when he and his family played a noon hour show over CKY Radio in Winnipeg. I rode my bike to the car lot where they played and told him I needed to play like he did. He told me to start with a Chet Atkins records, which I did.
That turned into lunch hour lessons over the next two years, and a lot of makeup work at school for being late!
Grand total: I learned 6 Chet Atkins albums, Chet Baker, Elvis, Merle Travis, and then anything else on the hit parade and he would show me how to play. It was literally by ear. He never knew what he was playing. He taught me an important part of guitar etiquette, which is that most people over play. When you sing, your breath keeps space in what you sing but in solos, you have to learn spacing.
From that knowledge I wrote Undun, Blue Collar, Looking Out for #1, These Eyes and Laughing. All are full of jazz chords that were not in Rock 'n' Roll at that time. I didn’t know they were incredible, I only knew what I had been taught. When you listen to this clip, you can hear how it influenced my playing.
It also taught me to stay clean because sadly, his addictions were the end of him and I never wanted that to happen to me.
Full story on my FB page. Cheers!
#musician #guitarist #winnipeg
#AskRandy: Many of you have asked about my idea to put amps in front of one another to achieve a certain tone.
Gar Gillies and I were both from Winnipeg and he knew the musical acts of the time. Trying to plug amps into amps fried them, it was just too much power. I sat down with him to discuss. He suggested a step-down transformer or a pre-amp as the solution. A pre-amp can be put into any amp. The first PA system and amps Gar Gillies made became Garnet Amplifiers. They were created for our band Chad Allan and the Expressions, which became The @theguesswho.
So, a pre-amp with my ‘59 Les Paul into a Garnet amp was the sound of American Woman. The result was called the “woman tone”. I named it the Herzog. We made it around 1962, before there were any foot pedals or standard fuzzy tones. If you’re curious about the sound, listen to American Woman or No Time by The Guess Who, or Gimme Your Money Please, Stayed Awake All Night and Let It Ride by Bachman-Turner Overdrive.
When he was passing away, he called me and said, "I'm near the end and I’m cleaning out my garage. I have original parts from 1966. I could make some amps." He sent 11 and billed me fairly. I sent one to @Neilyoung, one to @LennyKravitz (who had covered American Woman to great acclaim for an Austin Powers Movie), one to Steve Cropper and one to Gordie Johnson from Big Sugar. The sound of American woman. There’s still nothing else like it. Here's a clip playing it with Lenny in 2000.
#Winnipeg #GuessWho #BTO #guitarist
#AskRandy: Greg Tonnon asks: Randy, I saw a video of BTO performing in a prison. How did that happen?
Hi Greg, it was the Saskatchewan Penitentiary in 1988. Terry David Mulligan was host on Much Music, The Canadian equivalent of MTV at that time. The inmates petitioned for a concert, asking for BTO. It was a Sunday afternoon and the prisoners were in regular clothes. There was an outdoor area and a steak dinner was made so we ate & chatted with everyone. After we played, we found out that the federal government gave them an entertainment grant. The only way I'd do it again would be if the inmates somehow raised the money themselves. It's not right for tax payer dollars to fund such things. Everyone deserves good music but not out of the pocket of the working man. It was a great show though and a blast to play with BTO live again. Much Music called it Jailhouse Rock. Full show is available on YouTube. Here's a drumstick intro and a bit of "Four Wheel Drive". Cheers! #rocknroll #bachmanturneroverdrive #musichistory #fyp @BTObandofficial
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